These southwest style quesadillas are packed with lots of flavor, and are a big favorite around here! Corn tortillas filled with taco-seasoned chicken and butternut squash drizzled with BBQ sauce, they are perfect for a quick dinner the whole family will love.
Dinner time in our house gets a liiittle crazy. Right when I head into the kitchen to get dinner ready, the kids decide it is time to re-enact a WWE wrestling match on our living room floor, which always ends badly. The result? I am DESPERATE for quick and easy dinners that don’t require me standing in the kitchen for too long. Enter these quesadillas. Not only are they quick and easy, but they are delicious too! A win-win!!!
Just peel and dice a butternut squash, season it with taco seasoning, and throw it in the oven alongside taco-seasoned chicken. Bake ’em for 30 minutes or so, until the chicken is done and the squash is tender, and then all you gotta do is mash the squash, shred the chicken, and build your quesadillas! On a sidenote, my life has been forever changed by a kitchen hack I learned from a friend last night. Did you know you can shred chicken using your kitchen-aid mixer with the paddle attachment? Craaaaazy! I was taking forever last night to shred a bazillion chicken breasts, and my friend said, “you know you could do that way faster in the kitchenaid, right?” Fast forward 2 minutes, and the remaining chicken was beautifully shredded. Just throw it in a half breast at a time, start it on low, then crank it up a couple notches to get it good and shredded. Life. changing.
BBQ CHICKEN BUTTERNUT QUESADILLAS
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 40 mins
- Total Time: 50 mins
- Yield: 6 1x
SCALE
Ingredients
- 1 large butternut squash, peeled and diced into small chunks
- 4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
- Taco seasoning (1T chili powder, 1 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp oregano, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp black pepper)
- Your favorite barbecue sauce
- 12 Corn tortillas (gluten-free)
- Guacamole and cilantro, for topping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Toss butternut squash in olive oil and spread onto a baking sheet. Put chicken breasts in a baking dish and sprinkle with 1/2 T taco seasoning. Put squash and chicken in oven and bake until chicken is cooked all the way through and the squash is tender. Shred chicken. Mash squash and add 1/2 T taco seasoning to squash. Preheat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Place one tortilla in pan, spread 1/4 cup butternut squash on top, add shredded chicken, drizzle on bbq sauce, and top with another corn tortilla. Repeat the process with as many as you can comfortably fit in your pan. Cook until your tortilla is crispy and lightly browned, then carefully flip and continue cooking until the bottom tortilla is crispy and lightly browned. When its done cooking, top with guacamole, cilantro, and more bbq sauce if desired. Enjoy!
